Latham, Furfure hang up robes after 20 years

Saturday

BATH | Two Steuben County judges who have each spent two decades on the bench will be leaving in the new year.

Judge Joseph Latham was first elected in 1998, beating out the two men who will step in next year to replace him and Judge Marianne Furfure.

Latham said there are no hard feelings between himself and incoming judges Pat McAllister and Philip Roche.

“We were friends then, and we’re still friends now,” he told The Leader.

That’s probably just as well, since it was Latham that Furfure defeated to win her position in 1997.

“It was 16 years I worked in the court as a court attorney for Judge (Peter) Bradstreet, Judge (Donald) Purple and Judge (John) Finnerty,” Furfure said. “So I’ve been in the court system here for 36 years.”

Both said the responsibility of the position has been an honor, and at times a heavy burden.

“The trust proposed in us when the public vote for us and come in the court and trust us to make the right decisions -- it’s awesome,” Latham said. “I feel so honored to have had this job.”

“Every case, when you have two or more parties with things that they want the court to do -- those cases are every bit as important to those people as the ‘high-profile’ cases,” he added. “I just don’t have the ability to say this case is more important than that.”

Furfure acknowledged the position can be isolating.

“The weight of it all, it does fall on you,” she said. “The rules of judicial conduct really do restrict your ability to interact with and have relationships with other lawyers and other people outside of the courtroom.”

Furfure said her fellow judges have been a lifeline.

“Judge Bradstreet, Judge Latham and I have developed a very close working relationship,” she said. “We instituted an almost weekly meeting where the three of us will get together and talk amongst ourselves. If we have a difficult case that one of us is struggling with, we can talk it through. Because otherwise, you’re on your own.”

Furfure said one of the major changes she’s seen in her time on the bench, which began around the same time she and Latham were elected, is the emergence of drug courts.

“When I first started, the drug court concept was really new,” she said.

Furfure, Latham and Bradstreet all went through the training process for the program, and Furfure admits she remained a little skeptical at first.

“That was a really strange role for a judge to play, seeing people on a weekly basis, talking to them one on one about their day-to-day problems,” she said. “It’s just not how I saw my position.”

But over time, all three have become supporters of the program.

“We all pull together on the drug court work,” Latham said.

“I think that’s one of the best programs that the court system offers is an opportunity to avoid a prison sentence, get treatment and really change their lives,” Furfure said. “It is so moving and powerful to see what these people have accomplished.”

She added that it’s important to have a concerted approach to the substance abuse problems that make their way into family court along with the criminal system.

One thing, Furfure noted, hasn’t changed in her two decades on the county bench.

“I was the first woman to have this job in Steuben County, and I was the only woman in a county level judgeship in the Seventh Judicial District outside of Monroe County,” Furfure said. “And now 20 years later, I’m still the only woman judge at the county level in the district outside of Monroe County.”

“That’s kind of surprising to me (because) the number of women attorneys that have appeared before me in the last 20 years has exploded. When I started, it was not commonplace,” she said. “It’s very common (now) that all the attorneys appearing before me (on a case) are women.”

Latham said he was happy about one thing that hasn’t changed during his tenure.

“It’s been important to me that the phrase ‘In God We Trust’ has remained up there on the wall” in the courtrooms, he said.

Latham said it’s been important to him to remember that morality stems from a higher authority than himself.

Both judges seemed hesitant to talk about retirement as a permanent proposition.

“I’m going to be retired for a couple of weeks and see if I like it enough to stay retired for a couple of months,” Latham said, laughing but clearly not joking.

Furfure echoed that.

“That’s kind of my approach is a day-by-day approach,” she said.

As for the new judges coming in, both said they believed they could be counted on to continue the important work that goes on in the county’s courts.

“Roche and McAllister are excellent practitioners,” Latham said. “I’ve known them both as long as I’ve been a judge, and I have great respect for both of them.”

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